


Marionettes

by jaybbird, piranhapunk



Category: Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ, LazyTown
Genre: Accidental Death, Alternate Universe - Dark, Fae Magic, Feelings, Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ Spoilers, Half-Elf!Stephanie, Identity Reveal, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Older Characters, Other, Puppets, Puppets!AU, Regeneration, Secret Identity, Suicidal Thoughts, fae!Robbie, glamour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-10 20:58:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8939065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaybbird/pseuds/jaybbird, https://archiveofourown.org/users/piranhapunk/pseuds/piranhapunk
Summary: (DISCONTINUED) Robbie Rotten has a disturbing secret, and Sportacus has gotten himself mixed up in a terror far beyond his imagination. The people of Lazytown don't remember what happened the last time Glanni Glaepur was there, but he could never forget... no matter how hard he tried.





	1. Mistakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sportacus finds that the town villain is having a particularly bad night, and Robbie Rotten says too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW in this chapter for dissociation, depression, and suicidal thoughts.

“Someone’s in trouble!” Sportacus exclaimed, looking down at the crystal on his chest. It was pulsing brightly and making quite the fuss as he flipped out of bed and then out of his airship which had been hanging above the clouds. A glider unfolded from his backpack and he pedaled it to the furthest end of town. He couldn’t see that well, it was cloudy and dark, but his crystal had given him an image of where he needed to go. Anxiety swelled up in his chest and he just knew he had to get there as soon as he could. He was heading towards that billboard, just near Robbie’s lair. He had been there once or twice but no more than that. 

When he was close enough he retracted his glider just a few feet above the billboard and he landed right on top of it. About a yard away from him sat Robbie Rotten, at the billboard’s edge, staring at the stars. Robbie hadn’t even seemed to notice the elf fall out of the sky next to him. Of course, the elf had better night vision than he did. Perhaps Robbie genuinely just could not see him but it wouldn’t explain him not reacting to the metal quake beneath him when Sportacus landed. He inched closer to Robbie in the dark and took a seat next to him. 

“Robbie?”

Robbie Rotten had been deep in thought, miles away in his head, when he’d suddenly heard the elf’s voice next to his ear, and it made him jump and nearly topple backwards off of the billboard. Sportacus would never let that happen though, and he grabbed hold of Robbie’s arm and held him in place. Robbie looked down sharply at the hand that had touched him but all he saw was black. When had it gotten so late? He looked up from the hand and tried to find Sportacus’s face in the darkness but there was no moon out tonight and he couldn’t see a thing. He considered pulling his arm out of his grasp, but decided it would be safer if the elf held on. Did he  _ want _ to be safe, though? He stared through Sportacus in silence as he contemplated this. 

“...Robbie?” Sportacus said his name again, more softly. He had expected Robbie to pull his arm away, to jump to his feet, to shout and make a fuss and teeter off the edge of the sign but he didn’t. He just sat there. “What’s wrong? My crystal said that you are in trouble... are you stuck? Do you need me to help you get down?”

Robbie closed his eyes and let out a soft hum. “I don’t need your help, Sportacus.” He weakly tried to pull his arm from Sportacus’s grip. “I’m fine. I’m  _ always _ fine.” He gave up his conquest of retrieving his arm and slouched over a bit. He stared downwards into the darkness and tried to imagine the distance between him and the ground. 

Sportacus frowned and stood up, pulling Robbie to his feet with him. It was unlike Robbie to call him by his real name. He could tell there was something off. Robbie let out a high pitched shriek and clung to Sportacus for dear life. 

“Come on, Robbie. It’s late. I know you can’t get down yourself, especially not in the dark. Why are you even up here?”

Robbie sighed. What was the point of lying? He knew Sportacus-- _ this _ Sportacus, for nearly 12 years now. He knew when Robbie was lying. 

“I... I was thinking,” he tightened his grip on the elf a bit, not really knowing which direction was which, not sure where he could move his feet to, and not fall off. “The sun was still up when I came up here. I didn’t notice it get dark and then, then it was too late to climb back down.”

“Robbie, you wouldn’t have climbed down even if the sun was still up. You’re terrified of heights.” Robbie repeated him quietly in a mocking tone. Of course, even the tiniest fib couldn’t go undetected. It bothered him, how much Sportacus knew about him and how little he knew about Sportacus.

“I know that. I suppose I didn’t really plan on  _ climbing _ down.” He spoke quietly, wishing immediately after that Sportacus hadn’t heard him. He knew that he had though, when Sportacus lifted Robbie into his arms. He could feel the ground disappear from underneath them and they were falling. He tightened his arms around Sportacus and shut his eyes - the drop truly wasn’t that high but it was the highest point in all of Lazytown. He was afraid. The sound of feet connecting to metal rang out and brought  him back from his thoughts again. Sportacus took a few steps and put him down. Robbie let out a sharp breath of relief, feeling himself now on solid ground. 

Sportacus opened up the hatch to Robbie’s lair and paused, watching Robbie for a second - he had his arms wrapped around himself. He was hunched over and staring at the ground. Could he leave Robbie alone tonight? He wasn’t sure. He didn’t want to. 

“Robbie, you should go down to your lair, now. It’s late.” He was met with no response. “Would you like me to come in with you?” Silence, still. Sigh. “Robbie, do you want me to leave Lazytown forever?” He smiled, expecting an immediate response but still there was nothing. It was like his mind was somewhere else. Sportacus felt a bit uneasy. He decided to take Robbie down but there was only room for one at a time, so he awkwardly grabbed Robbie by the wrists and carefully slid down the vent with him, legs first. He and Robbie were shot out the other side at high speed but Sportacus stuck his landing and caught Robbie, who seemed to be disoriented and shook out of his thoughts very suddenly.

“Wh-- why are you in my LAIR?” Robbie shouted and tried to shove Sportacus away but ended up just launching himself backwards into his chair, since the elf was so much stronger and more balanced than he was. He sunk into the fluffy orange fur and squinted up at the lights blinding him. The lights really weren’t that bright but being in the dark for who knows how long he felt as if they were personally attacking him.

“Robbie, I was talking to you outside. You weren’t answering me. You weren’t  _ moving _ .” He crossed his arms over his chest and stared Robbie down. “I wasn’t going to leave you alone up there after what you said to me.”

Robbie stared at him blankly. What even had he said to Sportacus? He couldn’t remember. “Yeah, well. I’m fine now. I’m great. Peachy. You can go.” He made a shooing motion with his hands but Sportacus didn’t leave. He just stood there staring at him. He looked... worried. “What do you WANT, Sportaloon? What is it? Why are you still HERE?!”

“Robbie,” Sportacus began softly, his arms dropping to his sides. It was weird to see Sportacus with wide eyes and worried eyebrows, his arms just hanging there instead of flexing in some way to show off how strong he was. “You said you... hadn’t been planning on climbing down. What did you mean?” Sportacus knew full well what he had meant, he wasn’t an idiot. He had felt the hot tears on Robbie’s face when he had carried the man down to a safer height.

Robbie stiffened in his chair. There really was no point in lying, Sportacus could see right through him. “I... was going to jump.” He pressed himself further into his chair. He wanted the chair to swallow him up so he wouldn’t have to look at Sportacus anymore. He didn’t want that bouncy elf to be worried about him. He didn’t deserve it.

Sportacus wished that Robbie would have lied, just a little bit. He wished Robbie had said something silly, something completely ridiculous but oh-so typical of him. Robbie saying the truth, though, out loud, Sportacus felt like he had all the air knocked out of him. He felt his knees buckling underneath him and he let them, now sitting down on the floor.  “Why would you want to do that?” His voice was small, lacking the energy that usually backed his words. He sounded as small as he looked. Robbie felt guilty.

“I... you wouldn’t understand, Sporta...Sporta _ dork _ ,” Robbie raised his voice, as he gripped the fluff of his chair. Maybe... maybe if he just acted like he always acted, maybe if he was mean, Sportacus wouldn’t feel so bad and he would leave. He sat up straight and shot a hard look down at Sportacus. No. He couldn’t. He felt terrible. “I wouldn’t, really, I was just- I was just  _ thinking _ about it. I wouldn’t have-- I couldn’t.” Robbie took a deep breath. He really couldn’t. There was too much he had to do. Too many illusions he had to upkeep. If something happened to him... Stephanie and Sportacus would wake up to a horror unlike any other. It wouldn’t just be Robbie gone. It would be  _ everyone _ . Time would go back to passing like normal. Stephanie... Stephanie would be 20. She would wake up and be 20. The streets would be littered with lifeless puppets. There would be an unsettling dead air over Lazytown, a heavy silence blanketing the entire area. Robbie thought sometimes that maybe he would prefer it, the silence, but even thinking that made him feel guilty and disturbed at himself. 

Sportacus still just sat on the floor, staring at Robbie. He looked like he was about to cry but no tears had spilled. He was silent, having scooted a few inches closer to Robbie in his chair while he had been speaking.

Robbie felt guilty all over again. He let go of the tufts of orange fur from his chair and wrapped his arms around himself. “Sportacus, why do you... even care? Why is this affecting you so much? I have been nothing but terrible to you since you first came here twelve years ago. I’ve done nothing but make your life a living hell. I’ve hurt you so many times, I’m constantly trying to get you to leave! What does any of this matter? What d--” He locked eyes with Sportacus for a second and his blood went cold. The elf’s expression, which had previously been occupied by a look of worry and distress, was now painted with what only could be seen as sheer confusion. But why did Sportacus suddenly look so confused? 

Robbie slapped his hand over his mouth in horror when he realized what he had said. He managed to never mention it all these years, but now he had, suddenly and unintentionally. 

He said it right to the elf’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am 100% aware that i am NOT a good writer, but like, i need to post this trash SOMEWHERE....


	2. Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are falling apart.

Sportacus shook his head slowly and pushed himself up to his feet. 

“What are you talking about, Robbie? Twelve years? It hasn’t been...” he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. For the first time since arriving in Lazytown, he really thought about it. What year  _ was _ it? It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn’t been keeping track… something had been compelling him to not think about it. Twelve summers, twelve Christmases, twelve birthdays - it  _ had _ been twelve years, hadn’t it? Why was this such a surprise? It seemed so obvious - how could he have not noticed time passing until now?  “It has! Wh.. how? Stephanie…! The kids, the...” Robbie could not believe he messed up so badly. He had been doing so well all this time. He stood up out of his chair and planted his hands on the elf’s shoulders, took a shaky breath, and squeezed. Sportacus was staring at the floor and saying something quietly to himself in another language.

“Listen, Sportacus. I-I can explain. I shouldn’t have said anything, I-I made a terrible mistake,” he shook him slightly to try and get his attention. “Stop babbling and LOOK at me, you stupid  _ ELF!” _

Sportacus stiffened and stared up at Robbie, tears threatening to spill down his face. “I never told you I was an elf. You’ve always called me an elf.”

Robbie grimaced. This was too much, too quickly. Everything was falling apart. He cursed at himself silently. “I-I knew Number Nine. I watched him, once, making plants grow. He didn’t see me, but... I saw him. I knew he was an elf a-and you, you look just like him… You must be an elf, too!” Robbie wasn’t sure how to fix what he’d done at this point. He had already revealed more than he ever meant to, far more than he should have. Sportacus tried to squirm out of Robbie’s grip but Robbie dug his fingers into the shorter man’s shoulders, desperately willing him to stay. “Please, Sportacus. Don’t leave.” He beat Sportacus to the punch when he started to cry, his vision blurred over by his tears. “You have to understand,” He swallowed thickly, his throat feeling like it was going to close up at any second. “You  _ have _ to understand, I’m doing my BEST!”

Sportacus was conflicted. He wanted to stay, but he needed to go. He had to get out of there, something was wrong. He felt like his crystal should be screaming but it was silent. Nobody was in danger, but  _ something _ was wrong. His thoughts were racing, his heart was pounding, and his grasp on reality was slipping. How could so much time have passed, but everyone had remained exactly the same? All those years and none of the kids could possibly be older than ten? Why and  _ how _ did nobody notice this? He wondered how he himself never noticed, how the only person in the whole town who ever even mentioned it was--   
  
_ Robbie. _

“What did you do, Robbie?” His voice shook as he spoke. He reached up and grabbed Robbie’s arms. “Tell me- I can’t help if I don’t know what is going on.” He had to be strong. He was Sportacus! Lazytown’s hero! He had been Lazytown’s hero since-- did Robbie say he  _ knew _ him as number Nine?

Sportacus’s thoughts halted. The silence in the lair was deafening. Robbie was shaking, he looked as if he too was getting lost in his own mind, just like before when they were outside. Sportacus lifted Robbie’s hands off of his shoulders and pushed the taller man down into his chair again. “Robbie,” His voice was harsh and stern, no longer kind and soft as he usually spoke.

Robbie blinked, hard. The rest of the tears that he had tried so hard to keep inside had rolled down his cheeks in heavy drops. “Sportacus, you shouldn’t have come down with me. You should have just dropped me in and left. Th-Things would still be okay if you had just left. I don’t deserve your kindness. I really don’t. You don’t know me as well as you think you do. I’m bad, you know- terrible. Worse than you could ever possibly imagine. I’m not who I say I am and I made a horrible mistake. I shouldn’t be talking to you. I shouldn’t have said anything. I-I should've ju-” he covered his face with his hands and let out a heavy sob. The crystal on Sportacus’s chest finally started to wail but quieted immediately as he put a shaky hand on Robbie’s shoulder.

Sportacus did not get a chance to speak before Robbie shrugged off his hand with a terrible noise, a snarl almost, that made the elf genuinely feel fear deep in his chest. He knew for sure he had never heard that noise come from Robbie before, but it was  _ familiar _ .

“You can’t HELP me, you stupid...” Robbie shuddered and ran a hand through his hair, messing up the carefully gelled-in-place style that Sportacus had only ever seen him with. “You can _not_ help me. You shouldn’t be trying to, you shouldn’t even _want_ to. Have you really forgotten everything? You should KNOW what’s wrong, you were THERE!” Robbie was furious and so, so tired. He was tired of this day, tired of the last 17 years, tired of Sportacus being so kind hearted when he shouldn’t be. “You shouldn’t have ever come to Lazytown, Sportacus. You and your _stupid_ _daughter_ should be far, far away, leaving me to pull the strings of this dead town as I please, all alone, by myself, JUST how I LIKE it!”

Robbie didn’t know when he had stood up, or when he had started shouting. He didn’t know when he had grabbed the front of the elf’s shirt in his fist. Sportacus didn’t look afraid, though. He was staring up at Robbie with a strange expression that he couldn’t quite place. What did he say this time? Robbie released his grip on Sportacus and took a step back, placing a hand on his own chest and gasping for air. “I- I don’t. Want you getting hurt, Sportacus. You shouldn’t have come to Lazytown. I don’t want to hurt you again.” He wrenched his eyes shut. “I wish you could understand without me having to tell you. I wish you could just know, just _ remember _ .” He stood in silence for a few minutes, eyes still closed. 

When he opened his eyes again, Sportacus was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! Christmas happened.
> 
> I have no idea what I'm doing.


	3. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sportacus remembers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW in this chapter for references to suicide, poisoning, murder

A week had passed. Sportacus had a lot to think about. He didn’t leave his ship unless there was an emergency, and hadn’t played with the kids once since that night he saved Robbie. He had barely put his feet on solid ground. He stayed up there, by himself, thinking. The strange things that Robbie said, they made sense, in a way. Sportacus had always known, since he came to be Number Ten, that pieces of his memory were missing. The whole town remembered Number Nine, but he hadn’t remembered any of them.

Sportacus remembered being Nine, of course, but _nothing_ about Lazytown. When Stephanie had sent him that letter requesting his presence, he had thought he’d never been to Lazytown before. He knew better, now, though. With Robbie talking about it, he sort of... remembered? Not entirely, not everything, but the things Robbie brought up were so familiar. He vaguely recalled... little things. Making the children’s vegetables grow by sprinkling magic dust down upon their gardens from up in a hot air balloon... He didn’t remember Robbie being there, though. Then again, he only barely remembered being there himself. Hadn’t the kids been _older_ , back then? He remembered Ziggy. How many years ago was that, twenty? Sportacus was Number Eight back then, wasn’t he? He remembered the boy talking about his childhood, but even now he was only a child. He was the youngest of all the children. Something was terribly off about Lazytown and he couldn’t believe he didn’t notice it until now.

Since he left Robbie’s lair a week prior, Sportacus had been spending all of his free time, the time he usually spent with the children, reading. He read about Number Nine and about Lazytown. Things were slowly starting to add up but there was still something important missing.

One thing he did remember was falling in love with Solla as Eight, and being Stephanie’s father as Nine. He remembered how Solla didn’t want him having anything to do with bringing up Stephanie after she learned that he was an elf. He still couldn’t remember how he became Ten, though.

Sportacus was sifting through a pile of Lazytown newspapers from nearly two decades ago. He was a pretty quick reader, thankfully, so it wasn’t incredibly difficult or time consuming to skim through article after article, looking for any mention of himself. One thing he noticed, though, is Robbie Rotten was never mentioned. Not _once_ . Sportacus knew that Robbie had already been living in Lazytown when he had first come down from his airship. He said he had been in Lazytown when Sportacus was number Nine. Robbie said he knew him, but Sportacus never knew anyone by the name of Robbie Rotten back then, he was sure he would remember that! Robbie was a villain, and yet, he was not mentioned in _any_ of these newspapers. Not a single time. Sportacus wasn’t sure what to make of this, until he ran into a paper from 1999. It was on the front page.

The headline read, Glanni Glæpur Escapes From Prison. There was a real prison mugshot of a man who looked a lot like Robbie. He was younger, thinner, taller. Less tired, more angry. He didn’t look _exactly_ like Robbie, but he knew that when Robbie was in a disguise, it was, for whatever reason, nearly impossible to tell that it was him, even when his face was showing. In his picture in the paper, however, it was very clear that he was not wearing a disguise. His face was in full view, and he was wearing all black and holding up a placard showing his name and other relevant information.

Sportacus frowned as he read the article. His memories were slowly returning to him the further down the page he read. He _remembered_ Glanni, now. A terrible criminal, far worse than Robbie Rotten. Robbie was just lazy. He was depressed and tired and grumpy but he would never have the energy to go as far as stealing the president’s car. Sportacus neatly folded up the newspaper and placed it onto the table as he paced his airship. Robbie was nothing like Glanni. Glanni was evil. Sportacus remembered more and more about Glanni Glæpur the longer he thought about him.

“Robbie Rotten would never...” Sportacus stopped pacing. His eyes grew wide. Disguise himself as a salesman? He’s _done_ that. Try to convince the kids to eat disgusting canned garbage instead of eating healthy? He’s done _that_. Poison the kids? He pretended to, once. He had fooled them into thinking their sports candy was unsafe. He had covered both the kids and their gardens with spots. Little foil cut outs that static clung to everything they landed on. Now that he thought about it, that reminded him of...

Sportacus reached up and grasped his head as his mind spun. The kids. He remembered, now. The kids, they had been poisoned. Their gardens, their skin, covered in welts, sick to their stomachs, how could he have forgotten!? Sportacus gasped for breath as his memories returned to him. He shouldn’t have tried to remember.

Sportacus suddenly understood why Robbie didn’t want to talk to him about it. Why he would rather Sportacus just remember, why he didn’t want to have to tell him, himself. The kids... he couldn’t save them. He hadn’t saved them. Sportacus remembered what happened, now. Ziggy, Pixel, Stingy, Trixie, Bessie... they had _died_ , hadn’t they?  The mayor had died afterwards, from stress. Milford had been blamed for the poisoning at first and in the end he just... couldn’t do anything about it. Sportacus couldn’t save them.

They died. They were dead. They’ve been dead. Everyone in Lazytown. Glanni- _Robbie_ \- had _killed_ them.

Lazytown, it’s as it has always been. It’s still the same as it ever was but how could it be? How could these people be walking around? Playing? _Living?_ Sportacus’s crystal went off as he dropped to his knees, but he knew there was nowhere to go. It was he who was in trouble. He knew what happened to Number Nine. He couldn’t save them. He failed.

He had killed himself. To forget.  

Why was Lazytown still there? Why was everyone OK? He knew Robbie had the answer. As much hatred for him burned in his chest suddenly, remembering who Robbie really was, he knew Robbie was the only person who could tell him what was happening. Robbie was clearly filled with regret. He was so upset over it, even now, so long afterwards. Sportacus remembered, Robbie said he was doing his best. What is it that he was he doing? What on earth had he _done_? Sportacus grabbed the newspaper, with Robbie’s face plastered over the front cover, and called for his ladder. This couldn’t wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	4. Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sportacus confronts Robbie, and Robbie is afraid.

It was raining. The kids were all indoors and the only sound Robbie could hear were the drops hitting the metal roof of his lair. A soft, comforting noise that he had grown to enjoy over the years. He smiled when the sound of rain was broken by the soft rumble of thunder overhead. He leaned back in his chair and sighed. Sportacus hadn’t been around for an entire week. He was worried, at first, but nothing had happened. Everything was okay. He probably wasn’t ever going to come b-- 

“Robbie!” Sportacus’s voice echoed through the vent and into the main room of his bunker. The elf had opened the hatch and shouted down at him, derailing the poor man’s train of thought and ruining his day by just calling his name. Robbie didn’t get a chance to tell him to go away before Sportacus was shot out the other end of the vent and nearly into his lap. However the flippity elf vaulted over the chair and landed hard behind him, earning a cringe from Robbie. That was WAY too close. 

Sportacus walked around the chair to be in front of Robbie, who was about to say something snarky and disarming, but the look on Sportacus’s face... he couldn’t say a word. Sportacus was shaking softly, and he had something in his hand. A newspaper, it looked like. It was scrunched up in his fist. Robbie tilted his head and attempted to read the headline, anyway. It was obstructed by Sportacus’s fingers, gripping so hard his knuckles were white, but he could just make out-- Robbie’s face paled as he slowly looked up at Sportacus. Ah. He had thought he had gotten rid of any references to him from the Lazytown Library’s archives. He must have missed that one.

“Robbie... tell me the truth, okay? I- I know... what you did. I know what happened in Lazytown. I know what happened to the kids, to number Nine.” He thrust the paper into Robbie’s hands and cracked his knuckles. 

_ Was that a threat? _ Robbie thought to himself.  _ Wasn’t Sportacus too nice for that? _ He said he knew what Robbie did, though… did he really? He sunk into his chair and made himself as small as possible. “I-I can explain,” he squeaked out in a small voice unlike him. He thought this was over. He thought Sportacus would leave him alone forever and ever and this interaction, this exchange right now, would never have to happen. “It-it was an accident, a horrible accident, I never meant to... hurt anyone.”

Sportacus clenched his jaw. “Never meant to hurt anyone? Robbie, you poisoned the entire town. You  _ killed _ them.” Robbie shuddered beneath Sportacus’s sharp glare. He had managed to escape the wrath of Number Nine, but he always suspected he would get it from Number Ten. It’d been so long he thought he might never truly have to face any consequences for what he had done.

“S-Sportacus, that wasn’t my intention, I just wanted them to get sick, not.. not  _ die _ , I didn’t want to-- I would never  _ kill  _ someone.” Robbie covered his face with his arms, as if he was expecting Sportacus to start hitting him.

“You would never? You did, Robbie! You’re-- you’re Glanni Glæpur! You are an escaped convict! You--” Sportacus grabbed at Robbie’s arm but the taller man was a bit stronger than he let on, his arms didn’t budge away from his face. “Put your arms down! Robbie! LOOK at me!”

“I, please, I didn’t... I didn’t mean for this. If I had meant to kill them why would I try so hard to make things the way they were? Please, please, _ please _ don’t hurt me. I’ve had to live with what I’ve done for 17 years, isn’t that punishment enough!?” Robbie brought his arms higher over his head and curled up with his legs up on the chair, now, trying to guard his entire body with his long limbs. Sportacus let go of him.

“Robbie... what do you mean, make things the way they were? What is it you’ve done? How... how is Lazytown still Lazytown? How are they all here, Robbie?” He watched sadly as Robbie curled in on himself. It was obvious this man truly was tormented over what had happened. He felt terribly guilty, himself. Number Nine had taken a shortcut out of this problem, reincarnated into a newer, bluer elf with no memories of the terrible fate of Lazytown. No attachment to Lazytown at all. He had just left Glanni to suffer through it all by himself. Glanni… Robbie, had no way of resetting himself. There was no way for him to just get away from it all. He had been alone all this time with his thoughts, and it took him all these years to try and kill himself. Robbie was stronger than him. So much stronger. And here he was, curled in on himself, absolutely terrified that Sportacus would be the one to punish him for this. 

“I’m... not going to hurt you.” He really honestly meant that. He didn’t know how to prove it to him, how to make him understand this. “Please just tell me what you did.” Sportacus sighed and pulled off his hat. He felt like his entire body was on fire. It was usually cold down here, in Robbie’s lair, it had been the handful of other times he was here, but now he felt like he was burning, inside and out.

Robbie’s arms and legs stayed locked in position as shields for a minute before he slowly uncurled himself and stared up at Sportacus in fear. “I... You wouldn’t understand it, Sportacus. You really wouldn’t. I have trouble understanding it myself, and I  _ did _ it.”

Sportacus twisted his hat in his hands and sat down on the arm of Robbie’s chair. “Well, maybe we can figure it out together, then. I’m not going anywhere, Robbie... Not this time.” He gave Robbie a knowing look and Robbie averted his eyes. The villain was terrified of telling Sportacus the truth. He didn’t want the elf to hate him any more than he already did, though, he wasn’t even sure that was possible. 

He didn’t even hear Sportacus calling his name as darkness crept into his vision. He stared ahead, eyes fixed on an invisible space before him, as his mind wandered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sorry


	5. Rewind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie remembers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!

It was seventeen years ago. 1999. There had been no Christmas. No sleigh bells, no gingerbread cookies, and no hot cocoa. There had been no snowmen, snow angels, or snowball fights. The New Year was coming. Lazytown would have had such a brilliant celebration. Pixel would have been buzzing away about the disaster that Y2K was going to bring and Trixie would have made fun of him over it, relentlessly. Mayor Milford Meanswell and Bessie Busybody would have shared a kiss as the clock struck twelve, standing together in the snow, under the incredibly star speckled night sky that for just one night, would have been illuminated with brilliant fireworks. Stingy would have claimed every bottle of sparkling cider in town for himself, because they were his, you know. Ziggy would have been going at a hundred miles per hour, filled with sweets that he was allowed to have for the special occasion. He could have had as many as he liked until midnight. It was the new year, after all. Jives and Solla would have been there, too, even. Maybe even Penny. They would never have moved away. Solla would have held little Stephanie’s hand as they watched the ball drop on the television. Number Nine would have landed his balloon in the center of town, and maybe, just maybe, he could have seen his daughter. None of that ever happened, though. 

Crossing from 1999 to 2000, in Lazytown there was not a single shred of confetti, not a streamer or a firework. The streets were bare and the lights were out. There wasn’t a single soul to be seen. There had been a thick blanket of snow on the ground, completely clean and white and undisturbed. As the snow melted into spring, there would be nobody playing outside as the weather warmed, and as spring faded into Summer there would be no parties, no beach days, and no vacationing. Deep underground, Glanni Glæpur had fashioned a new identity for himself - Robbie Rotten. It fit him, he decided, because out of all the things he was, most significantly, he was rotten. He had nothing to lose, so he took all the money that Lazytown had and he had kept it for himself. He had ultimately succeeded in his sick plan, he was rich. He knew that he didn’t deserve it, though. He built himself the bunker that he now lives in and he would  _ never _ leave. He would rot away, alone. Nobody would ever find him. He would perish eventually, like everyone else in Lazytown had. It was what he deserved.

Summer turned to fall, and the streets above him were littered with leaves of every color that would never be raked. Nobody would be going to school, or work, and there would be no costume parties on Halloween. The weather was growing colder again. Had it really been only a year? To Robbie, it had felt like an eternity. He tried to distract himself by creating art, there was no reason he shouldn’t, but he just ended up making himself feel worse. The faces of the citizens of Lazytown were burned into his mind, and as thus, when he started making art, it would end up looking like them. He couldn’t manage anything else. He had made puppets - one for everyone who had passed. 

* * *

The new year came again. It was 2001, now. Robbie climbed up out of his underground hiding spot and took a breath of fresh air. He wouldn’t have come up if he had the option, but he had ran out of food a few days prior and as much as he  _ wanted _ to starve himself to death, he couldn’t ignore his hunger pains any longer. He had headed over to the grocery store. Though abandoned it was, he had been sure that he’d be able to find some sort of canned goods and candies that he could smuggle back down to his lair. Maybe they had boxes of cake mix that hadn’t yet expired. He didn’t have any eggs or milk, but he would just mix the powder with water and eat it like pudding. Disgusting. Whatever.

Robbie had brought the puppets up out of his lair with him. He dumped them all in the park together in a pile, wanting to get them out of his sight, but he felt guilty with them all lying there like corpses. It made him sick. He gently rearranged the puppets to make it look like they were alive, almost. He put the puppets of Stingy and Trixie on the see-saw with a little piggy bank and a slingshot, respectively, and little puppet Ziggy was placed on a swing with an almost comically large lollipop stuck to him, half eaten away and dusty. He put the puppet of Pixel on a bench with some fancy gadget that Robbie had already built- it seemed like him to have something like it with him. The puppets of Ms Busybody and the mayor went on the bench, too, just to put them down somewhere. He considered breaking into the Mayor’s office and putting them where they ‘belonged’ but he decided that was going a little too far. 

He stood there, admiring his work with a smile, well, almost a smile, before he began to laugh with cold tears streaming down his face as he worked himself into hysterics. How ridiculous. Why was he even doing this? He honestly began to consider the thought that he had gone mad. He screamed. He hated himself, so desperately, and he knew nothing would ever fix this disaster he brought to this small town. They hadn’t deserved this. Everyone here was so kind, had so much potential, and he just ended them all like it was nothing. Like he was a wayward draft and they were a lit candle. Gone. 

Robbie had stomped over to the market and nearly ripped the door off it’s hinges, expecting it to be harder to open than it was. He’d grabbed a cart and filled it up with cans upon cans of disgusting vegetables and sauces and boxes of uncooked pasta and whatever else wasn’t completely inedible. He stuffed some money in a cash register and towed his food filled cart all the way back to his lair, dumping its contents down the hatch. He had made a note to return the cart later - it was only polite. He dove down the vent into his lair and reluctantly put all the food away. As much as he would have preferred to just have a mountain of food in a pile on the floor, he had to do SOMETHING with his time, and if that something was tidying up, so be it. 

* * *

He went to bed that night with a full stomach, but he still felt empty. Even as a criminal, he never once felt as really, completely AWFUL as he had now. He’d thought that, maybe as time passed, he would start to feel better. He never did, though. He wished he could undo all of what he had done. He wished that all those stupid puppets he made could just be... no, that was ridiculous. He couldn’t believe he had even thought such a thing.  _ He wished he could undo what he had done _ , and his wish stopped right there. He curled up in his chair and pulled the small blanket over him. For the first time in a long time, he slept until the sun came up, and then some. He may have slept even longer but he was awoken by a ruckus above his head.

Robbie gasped hard as he was startled awake, his blanket thrown off of him as he launched himself up, but his legs weren’t quite as awake as he was, and he ended up falling flat on his face. What was that, the noise above him? Had someone... come to Lazytown? Actual living people, here? He had conflicting feelings about this and he grasped at his stomach as he rose to his feet. On one hand, he was excited, there were people here - real living people that he could TALK to and not feel so incredibly lost and lonely... but on the other hand, there were people here... would they recognize him? Would they call the police? Even worse, would they suffer the same terrible fate as the people who came before him? He decided that he wouldn’t go up to see them. He would stay down in his lair, alone, forever, and whoever was up there could leave for all he cared. He quickly ran over to his periscope, finally able to test it out and spy on real live people in the process. He pressed his face against the viewfinder and pushed the periscope up. He swiveled it around trying to find the source of the sound, but when he did, he felt like he had been stabbed in the chest. There were children in the park... and they were the children he himself had created. He couldn’t move. He was completely frozen in fear and confusion as they played together, calling each other by their names, even their voices sounded the same. A horrible chill ran up his spine. His godawful puppets were alive. He had moved them out of his lair so he wouldn’t have to look at their disgusting Muppet faces, but now, they were alive, and they had woken him up, and...

When Robbie opened his eyes again, it was night time. He had blacked out, for reasons that were completely understandable, and hit his head hard on the metal grate that was his lair’s sorry excuse for a floor. He stood up and rubbed the back of his head. No blood, he sighed thankfully as he peered back into the viewfinder. What he saw then was almost as surprising as the puppets that had nearly given him a heart attack earlier. All the lights in the houses were on, glowing softly through the windows. Had the power come back? He had been diverting all the power down to his lair, but both the town and his lair were fully lit. Robbie’s head felt a bit light and his hands buzzed softly. They were hot and red and he felt as if there was even electricity buzzing through him. He remembered the wish that he made but he didn’t believe in wishes. Had he done this himself? He shook his head hard and went over to sit down in his chair. He was awake all night and come morning the children were playing again.

With all of his courage and all of his remaining energy he left his lair and walked to the park. The town didn’t feel so empty anymore. He stood at the far end of the park and watched the children play, unsure what to make of this but he felt responsible. He didn’t know why he felt responsible, but in his mind he knew that the puppets seemed to radiate the same energy that he felt in himself the night before. His hands gripped the wall he was standing behind tightly as he leapt over it, and approached the puppets - the  _ children _ . They stopped playing and looked at him. He thought for a moment that they recognized him and his heart dropped, but then he was hit in the face with a small pebble from Trixie’s slingshot and the children’s silence vanished into shouting and laughter.

He introduced himself to all the children that day, as Robbie Rotten. They were happy to meet him, not recognizing him in the slightest and he was thankful. After their brief introductions, he sent them all home. He told them that Lazytown was supposed to be lazy and they seemed to think that made enough sense,  leaving without a fuss. Robbie went home and the ‘kids’ never played outside again. They were lazy, just like he told them to be.

Robbie clearly had some sort of power over them, as they were never a bother to him after that day. They listened to him, did what he told them to. Of course, until Stephanie moved in three years later. Robbie had spent those three years in a strange funk, both disgusted in what he had done and shocked over what he had created. He didn’t know how, but he supposed it was best not to ask questions. Over the years, he learned that it _ must  _ have been him, what else could have brought those puppets to life? He really must have some kind of magic powers. He found that he could create invisible objects with his mind and disguise himself effortlessly as anyone he could dream of. He found that he could teleport, too. There were probably lots of other things that he could do that he still didn’t know about, but the thing that bugged him most about all of this strange and wonderful nonsense was  _ how?  _ He was a human, wasn’t he? Humans were not inherently magical. He was not a witch or a warlock, a mage, or a sorcerer, that he knew for sure. He was no good at mixing magic potions or writing out spells - how and why was he  _ magic _ ? He could never answer this question himself and he certainly had nobody he could ask. He’d always thought that maybe he would just never know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter that I've already written. I'm still working on the next chapter!   
> Thanks for reading!


	6. Wake Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robbie tries to explain, and Sportacus tries to understand. Perhaps an example would help... though, it might not be the best idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I've been putting it off for no reason other than I am lazy.

He heard something. It was the same thing, over and over- was it his name? It was Sportacus’s voice- he was calling him! Where had he been? He remembered his vision fading out, and then… Robbie gasped as he shook his head, almost cartoonishly, trying to clear his mind as he snapped back into reality.

“Robbie?!” Sportacus was there, so close to him, hands on Robbie’s shoulders. “Robbie! Are you--” Okay? Of course not. The elf winced at the poor choice of words that almost came out of his mouth. “Are you with me?”

“I’m… awake,” Robbie said quietly. He was exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in his whole life. His limbs were heavy and his eyes felt like they were full of sand. He stared up into Sportacus’s eyes. The elf looked so worried but he had only been lost in thought for a few seconds, right? Maybe a few minutes? “Why are you looking at me like that? I was just thinking,”  
  
“Robbie, it’s been… at _least_ an hour. I need you to talk to me. I can’t help if--” Robbie waved his hands at Sportacus and cut him off.

“--if you don’t know what’s going on, I know, Sportacus. You say that, but I-I don’t think you could help me, even if I told you everything I know. The whole truth. It’s just,” Robbie took a deep, shuddering breath and shakily stood up from his chair, pushing Sportacus away from him a bit. “I don’t even know what exactly the whole truth _is_ . I’m not sure what to even tell you, where to begin, I-” It was Sportacus’s turn to interrupt as he clapped a hand down on Robbie’s shoulder again.  
  
“Just tell me what you _do_ know, Robbie, and we can go from there.” He gave the villain a half-hearted smile, but his eyes did not smile with him. They showed worry, and distrust. It made Robbie nervous. He glanced over at the hand on his shoulder as he stood there, silently searching for the right words from his mind, his face twitching as he looked back to Sportacus. The elf’s smile was nowhere to be seen. Making eye contact with him, Robbie frowned deeply and clenched his fists once, then twice, before reaching up and straightening his vest with a tug. He took a deep breath.

“They’re… they’re puppets.” He felt the wind knocked out of him as Sportacus shoved him, suddenly. The elf’s brows were knitted together in an expression of annoyance.

“This-- this isn’t a JOKE, Robbie! This is serious! If you aren’t going to be honest with me…” He paused his shouting when tears started streaking down Robbie’s face. His eyes red-rimmed and his entire body starting to shake before him. “You’re… not joking?” Robbie shook his head slowly and without a word. “I don’t understand,” He sounded scared now, genuinely so, his voice small, almost a whisper.

“I don’t, either,” Robbie choked out as he wrung his hands together. “I made them myself. It was… therapeutic, for me. I just…. I made them, and then I wished…” Robbie shut his eyes, he knew he sounded so stupid saying this. Sportacus must think he’s an idiot, for sure. “I wished that the kids could be… alive. You know? I was-- I was so lonely, Sportacus. I was hurting. I just wanted things to be like they were. Just like they were before--” he reached up and covered his mouth, stifling a sob against his hand. “And then they just, they just _were_.”

Sportacus stared at Robbie, eyes wide, mouth slightly agape. “Robbie… you have magic?” Robbie replied with a weak shrug, still covering his mouth. “You don’t know…” Sportacus crossed his arms in front of him. “No wonder you’re so tired all the time, you spend all of your energy on…” he gestured vaguely. “Lazytown.”

“I can’t… I can’t sleep at night, I can’t stop thinking about… every horrible thing that I’ve done. I can’t sleep in the day because I can’t let anyone see the truth. I have to - I have to keep it up, all the time, I just want them to be lazy so I don’t have to use so much energy, so I can _rest_.”

“What would happen if you slept while they were active..?” A harmless enough question posed by the world’s nosiest fucking elf. As if that mattered - he was just making small talk, now. There was NOTHING that any of them could do to fix this horrible situation, and they would just have to live with it, now. Or leave. It didn’t matter to Robbie, and by “didn’t matter,” that meant, it did, so much.

Robbie paused for a moment before shuffling off to a closet door, almost invisible to the untrained eye, blending into the wall perfectly except for a handle. He pulled it open and a mountain of junk fell out towards him, almost comedically, if the situation hadn’t been so extremely unhumorous. He impressively dodged the rubbish, likely having experience with this particular closet, and immediately starting digging through, tossing aside odds and ends that bounced and clattered as they hit the floor a few feet away. Springs and cogs, half finished inventions and strange knick-knacks of all kinds were chucked across his lair until finally, he pulled out two humanoid objects.

Robbie spun around and dragged them back to Sportacus, leaving all the trash exactly where it was. He stopped a few feet away and threw the two things he retrieved down at the floor harshly. Sportacus looked down at them and felt a chill run up his spine. Puppets. Hand made, but very well so, one that looked a lot like number nine, all brown leather and golden fabric with racing stripes, and a crystal hanging from the end of his hat. The other, he assumed, had been one of Robbie - dressed in a familiar purple coat, but it’s face bashed in beyond all recognition.

“Puppets,” Robbie said, matter of factly. “That’s what would happen. If I stopped. They wouldn’t be kids anymore. To you. They would be puppets. You’d see puppets.” Sportacus frowned.

“The kids… they look like this? All of them?” He glanced down at the puppets again, just for a moment, before deciding he would rather look at Robbie. The puppets were unsettling, to put it kindly.

“For the most part… except yours, of course. She's real, unfortunately.” Robbie shifted uncomfortably as he let out an awkward laugh. He still had jokes. “Um, I made these two first, they weren’t as… good.”

_Yours._ Sportacus looked up at the high ceiling of Robbie’s lair, wondering if Stephanie knew that he was her father. He shook his head. Probably not. He looked back to Robbie. “So… on top of… animating puppets. You make them look real? To everyone?”

“I guess so,” Robbie shrugged. They never looked real to him, of course. He only ever saw them as puppets. Sportacus gestured down at the floor.

“Could you make these... alive? Maybe if I watch you do it, I could figure out what kind of magic it is, and then-” Robbie cut him off, speaking above him.

“Why would you want to do _that_ ? What does it matter?”  
  
Sportacus ducked his head a bit, but his eyes didn’t stray from Robbie’s face. “I don’t know, I thought… maybe it would help you. To know.” Robbie looked away at some random distant spot across his lair.

“It hardly matters now, does it? What’s next, Sportaflop? You’re going to take me to jail and I’ll rot there until I die. It’s over, it doesn’t matter what stupid magic I have or how. It’s pointless. It’s-” Sportacus shook his head.

“I’m not the police, Robbie. I want to help you, not send you to jail. What you did was terrible but making you suffer more over it doesn’t seem like the right thing to do to me.” He gave the villain another smile, a little less half-hearted, a little more real, but maybe Robbie was just seeing things in his exhausted state. That was surely it. Hallucinating. That explained everything, the smile, the kind words, the flash of yellow in the corner of his eye… he glanced down for a split second at floor, then back to Sportacus. Then back to the smashed puppet laying on the floor between himself and the blue elf.

Puppet.

_Singular._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :^)


	7. Puppets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A magical mishap awakens an unwanted guest, and Robbie makes a mistake trying to fix it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty short, sorry!

Sportacus had followed Robbie’s gaze down to the floor, and before he could even speak, a yellow blur flipped over him from behind and landed between himself and Robbie, crushing the puppet of Robbie even further into oblivion with his heavy leather boots. Sportacus staggered backwards at the force of the landing before him and gasped- before him in all of his own former glory, himself, in a previous incarnation. He held a wrench tightly in a tanned, calloused fist, and though Sportacus could not see his face, it was obvious that Nine was fuming with rage towards the villain.

“Glanni Glæpur!” Nine shouted in a voice that was nearly identical to Sportacus’s. It was a bit deeper though, and far less friendly. Robbie growled in annoyance, and it sent chills down Sportacus’s spine, though Nine seemed substantially less bothered. Robbie kind of shared that same apathetic attitude towards Nine, even though the angry elf was holding a heavy weapon. Nine reached backwards with his free arm, holding out a hand towards where Sportacus was standing. “Stay back, my friend! This vile excuse for a human being is a  _ killer _ , and I will make quick work of him, here and now.” 

Robbie just stood there, staring at him, eyes half lidded, swaying slightly on his feet. He was entirely unfazed by the threat, and Sportacus could not for the life of him figure out why- and why wasn’t his crystal going off? Nine was just about ready to kill Robbie! Sportacus quickly swept Nine’s legs out from underneath him with a well placed kick, but Nine caught himself before he hit the floor, and turned to Sportacus with an expression of confusion and anger. “You-- elf! You are making a deadly mistake, this man deserves what’s coming to him- don’t you know what he has done? Who are you, so willing to betray your own kind for a worthless piece of filth such as Glanni Glæpur?” Sportacus shrugged. 

“I’m you, in about 17 years?” He let out nervous laugh at his doppelganger, and he,  _ it _ , growled and raised the wrench he’d stolen up above his head. Before Sportacus could react, Robbie had grabbed hold of Nine’s wrist. Robbie was then launched forward with a swing of the fake elf’s arm and thrown directly into Sportacus- the two of them toppled over onto the floor, and Robbie’s expression was nowhere near as disinterested as it had been a minute before, now it was pure terror, and pain. The wrench had somehow slipped from Nine’s grip in the middle of chucking Robbie across the room like a wet paper towel and collided with the back of the man’s skull before he, Sportacus, and the wrench hit the floor with a loud thud and a metallic clatter. Nine took a step towards the twisted bundle of limbs and smirked. 

“Stupid. You thought you could protect your traitorous elf  _ boyfriend _ from me? You thought you were stronger than I?  Íþróttaálfurinn ?” Sportacus finally untwisted himself from Robbie, who was conscious, but bleeding from the impact of the wrench. He placed himself between Robbie and his double, and frowned.    
  
“He might not be stronger than you, Nine, but I  _ am _ .”

“You think you’re stronger than I? You have yet to honestly tell me who you even really are!” Nine cracked his knuckles and looked Sportacus dead in the eyes, not showing a spark of trust or humanity. Is this really what he would have become? A vengeful… killer? Sportacus shivered, and puffed out his chest. No. This wasn’t him. This was a puppet. Sportacus pointed to his crystal, and himself, with an outstretched thumb. 

“I’m number Ten. And  _ you _ ,” he gestured towards the yellow suited blowhard across from him. “Aren’t real.” He crossed his arms almost triumphantly, but Nine still stood there, staring at him like he was an idiot. “Y-you’re a puppet.” Nine reeled back and launched his entire body at Sportacus, but before he could be hit, he was tugged to the floor from below- Robbie, again, taking initiative to save the clueless blue buffoon. Sportacus landed on the floor, and Nine tripped over Robbie’s fallen figure, landing in a somersault and using a one armed back handspring to hop back up onto his feet. 

“You’re an idiot,” slurred Robbie, who patted Sportacus on the arm and stumbled up to his feet. He turned to Nine and pointed an accusatory finger. “And YOU, you… mustard menace-” Nine reached forward and grabbed him by the front of his vest. Sportacus leapt to his feet, but Robbie didn’t even seem to notice the grasp of Nine as he waggled his finger closer to the elf’s face. “First of all, Glanni is dead. I killed him myself.” Nine’s grip faltered slightly, but Robbie didn’t give him a chance to speak. “And secondly-ly...ly,  _ YOU _ ,” his face scrunched up as he bared his teeth and furrowed his brows so hard you could see the crease above his nose. “ARE A  _ PUPPET _ !” His voice cracked as his hand reached forward to grab Nine by the throat, and Sportacus shook his head in confusion as he saw the puppet dangling from Robbie’s grasp. The atmosphere around them immediately felt off, unsettling, almost hauntingly so. Robbie’s eyes widened and he turned his head sharply to look at Sportacus, horror painted over Robbie’s face, and then Sportacus realized what had happened. His crystal burst to life with light and sound as a shrill shriek of terror echoed through the lair, coming from a speaker channeling sound from above them. 

_ Stephanie. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	8. Untitled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The spell is broken, and someone's in trouble.

Sportacus dragged Robbie up and out of his lair to the surface, certain he didn’t want to leave the villain alone, bleeding and disoriented in the cold dark underground bunker he called home. Of course, he probably wouldn’t have left Robbie alone even if he weren’t bleeding. After all this, he wasn’t sure he would ever feel okay leaving Robbie alone again, which the elf was sure he would hate, but he would have to deal with it. He shoved the hatch open with one hand, crawled out, and dragged Robbie out behind him with the other. 

At first sight, Lazytown was different. It was subtle, every color was just a little duller. The sky was just a little greyer, the grass just a little more brown. The billboard just the slightest bit dirtier, more rusty, and more desaturated than he had remembered. He dragged Robbie behind him as he ran, but only for a moment before he pulled him onto his back and ran with him. Nobody would comment on Robbie, half conscious and piggy-backing on Sportacus. There was nobody left to.

The town was just the tiniest bit colder and in the slightest bit more disarray. There were old newspapers, wet and stuck to the ground. There was what was left of old posters, with ripped corners stuck to walls with browned flaking tape. The playground sat unused and rickety, the sports field a bit overgrown and empty. 

And Stephanie, a sight for sore eyes, there she was. She was hunched over by the apple tree. Even she seemed a bit less pink. 

Sportacus put Robbie down gently on the grass by a wall. It wasn’t quite as soft as he remembered but it would have to do. He left him there, just for a moment, as he made a mad dash towards Stephanie while pulling his hat back on and making sure to tug the fabric down over his ears. He was careful to step over the stiff, lifeless puppets that littered the ground around her. There was one puppet laying across her lap- Trixie, it looked to have been. Stephanie trembled terribly as she looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. 

“S-she just,” Stephanie let out a choked sob as Sportacus put his arm around her.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, and took a shaky breath as the Trixie puppet slid off of Stephanie’s lap. She clung to Sportacus and sobbed into the crook of his neck. He just held her in silence as she cried and cried. He knew he couldn’t talk to her like this, she wouldn’t hear him. He leaned back against the apple tree and held her- his  _ daughter _ \- though that she did not yet know. He watched Robbie, who was by the wall, still awake, silently observing them. He caught Sportacus’s eye and looked away, ashamed. He hadn’t intended to fuck it up. He just meant to stop that awful Sporta-puppet. Not  _ all _ of them. 

After at least a half hour of Stephanie sobbing against Sportacus, Robbie had gotten to his feet, and crept away from them. About another half hour passed, and he still hadn’t returned. Stephanie pulled away from Sportacus shakily, clinging to his shirt. 

“What - what’s  _ happened _ ?” She hiccuped and reached up to wipe her tears away, feeling the subtle changes in her own face as she did so. She looked down at her grown hands, and the rest of her adult self in horror, and then back up to Sportacus. “I’m  _ old! _ ” Sportacus couldn’t help but let out choked laughter at that revelation. Stephanie looked hurt. “Sportacus, why are you laughing! Everything is terrible and you’re laughing!”

“It’s been a long, long week, Stephanie. I really wish I could explain it to you,” He reached forward to pat her arm, just because. Just to remind himself that she was still real. Still there. Still his own flesh and blood. Not a lifeless puppet.

“Why can’t you?” She looked worried, but not for herself. She had so much courage, even still, and he was - and would always be -  _ so _ proud of her.

“It’s a long, long story, too,” he looked to the spot where Robbie had been just a bit earlier and frowned, wondering if he should go looking for him. His crystal was silent however, and he decided it could probably wait.

“I…” Stephanie looked down at the puppet - Trixie - laying motionless in the grass next to her. “This has to be… one of Robbie’s schemes, right? I mean, she didn’t really turn into a  _ puppet _ , she’s… she’s just somewhere else, right? She’s my… my-” Stephanie choked at the forlorn expression the hero gave her in response. “ _ Sportacus _ ,” she frowned. “Please... tell me what’s going on!” Sportacus sighed. 

“I think I need to talk to Robbie before I tell you, it is very important that I say the right thing.”

“So it IS one of Robbie’s schemes?”

“Well… no,” The elf sighed as the tiny flicker of hope he saw in Stephanie’s eyes went out.

“No…? So I’m really, I’m really alone? All my friends…? What about Bessie and Uncle Milford?!” Sportacus shook his head. She gasped. “I don’t- I don’t even have any family anymore, I-” her eyes filled with tears again and Sportacus grabbed her shoulder. 

“What do you mean, you don’t have family? What about S-- your mother?” Stephanie ducked her head and looked away.

“I… I never wanted to tell you, Sportacus. I didn’t know what you’d think of me.” She reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear- pointed, like his. “She… she sent me here because she didn’t want me anymore. She said I was a mistake… she said she didn’t want anything to do with me, Sportacus. I’m a  _ freak _ and I didn’t… I didn’t want you to know I was a freak. But now, you’re all I have left.” Sportacus reached forward and tilted her head up from beneath her chin. 

“You’re not a freak, Stephanie. You are perfect. You are strong, and smart, and the bravest girl I have ever known.” Stephanie sighed and went to pull away but Sportacus stopped her. “You’re amazing, and you, you still have at least  _ one _ family member who cares about you very, very much.” She looked at him with a quizzical expression as he reached up and pulled his hat off, ears springing out from underneath and Stephanie gasped loudly. 

“Your ears! They’re just like mine!” She reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear on the other side as well. “You’re an elf too?” Sportacus laughed.

“I  _ am _ an elf and you are half.” Stephanie nodded, that made sense. Her mother was obviously human but had always just referred to Stephanie as her elf child. 

“So my father was an elf, then?” Sportacus couldn’t help but smile at her, despite everything.

“Yes, he is.” He stared at her expectantly as she stared back at him, at a loss for words. 

“S-Sportacus,” she covered her mouth with her hands and spoke into them, muffled slightly, but nothing his elf ears couldn’t decipher. “Are… are  _ you _ …?” His face split in a huge grin as his eyes crinkled up at the corners. He gave her a little nod.

“Your father,” he said, nervousness bubbling up in his chest. Stephanie cried, though this time it wasn’t out of sadness. 

“Y-you’re my-” She shook as he pulled her into an embrace again. She crawled into his lap and wrapped her arms around him, tighter than ever. 

“Yes, I am. I’m so sorry it took me so long. I care about you  _ so _ much, Stephanie. I’m so happy to finally be here for you.” She laughed against him and pulled back a bit, peering up at him with a soggy face.

“You’ve always been here for me!” She let out a gross wet sniffle that made them both laugh.

“Well, now I’m here for you as your dad, okay?” He smiled but Stephanie went silent. “Steph?”

“ _ Robbie, _ ” Stephanie muttered quietly, looking over her father’s shoulder. Robbie had come back and was watching them. “He’s just… _ staring  _ at us. I-I’m gonna go give him a piece of my mind.” She tried to stand up but Sportacus pulled her back down.    
  
“No, you will not.” Stephanie gave Sportacus a scandalized look and he just shook his head. “Please,” He turned his head to look at Robbie, who was nervously wringing his hands together a few yards away. “Robbie? Are you okay?” Robbie faked a smile at him.

“I’m always okay,” he lied as he took a few steps towards them. Stephanie scrambled backwards towards the tree and looked at him with fear. Understandable. Robbie looked at her the same way. She must know. She must  _ hate _ him. Sportacus turned back to Stephanie and opened his mouth to speak but she shook her head and wobbled to her feet. 

“I know he did something. He needs to fix it,  _ now _ . Fix it, Robbie.” Sportacus cringed at Stephanie’s misplaced courage and Robbie took a step backwards. He had left earlier to take a nap, against better judgement and now he was starting to regret coming back. His head had been throbbing but he was feeling better now, he wasn’t even bleeding anymore. On top of that he felt so…  _ energized _ now that he wasn’t putting on a puppet show for Stephanie and Sportacus. Not quite as energetic as those two, but… more so than his usual. He felt like he did years ago and that was something he never imagined. Stephanie squinted at him and furrowed her brow when he did not respond to her. Robbie laughed nervously. 

“I-I can’t fix it, Pink--” He choked and corrected himself before he finished the sentence, “ _ Stephanie _ .” The pink half-elf crossed her arms tightly over her chest. Robbie took another step back and hunched over, trying to make himself look smaller. He glanced at Sportacus to plead for his help but Sportacus wasn’t looking his way, instead watching Stephanie. Robbie turned back to Stephanie, too. 

“Robbie, I don’t know what crazy machine you built or mean trick you’ve pulled to destroy Lazytown, just put it back!” She clenched her fists and Robbie raised his hands as if to defend himself.

“I-I  _ can’t _ because this  _ is _ put back. This  _ is _ fixed. I’m  _ sorry. _ ” He swallowed thickly and stood up as straight as he could. He sent another look to Sportacus, begging for him to notice. He did. Sportacus stood up and walked over to Stephanie, putting a hand on her shoulder. 

“He’s telling the truth, Stephanie,” he frowned slightly. “Please understand, he wasn’t trying to hurt you with this. He only had good intentions.” Stephanie shrugged off Sportacus’s hand and shot daggers into him with her eyes. 

“Good intentions?  _ Robbie Rotten _ with good intentions?!” She was getting herself worked up now but Sportacus would put an end to that. 

“He saved me today, Stephanie.” She stared at Sportacus in disbelief, then looked to Robbie, then back to Sportacus again. 

“Why would  _ he _ save you?” Stephanie’s words echoed through Sportacus’s head as he just stared at her blankly. He hadn’t questioned it and now he didn’t have an answer for her. He looked back over to Robbie, who looked more uncomfortable and nervous than ever. 

Robbie could have let Nine bash his head in with that wrench but he had put his own safety on the line to try and stop him. The villain could have let Nine tackle him to the ground but Robbie had pulled him out of harm’s way just in time. Robbie had stood up to Nine for him. He had quite possibly saved Sportacus’s lif,- the elf wasn’t entirely sure he would be strong enough to beat an angrier, younger version of himself. 

Robbie thought the hero hated him and Sportacus hadn’t been so sure that Robbie liked him either. He had always tried to get rid of him since the moment he set foot in Lazytown. Robbie didn’t consider them friends at all... So why  _ did _ Robbie save him? 

Robbie coughed and ran his fingers through his messy hair. 

“Anyway,”  he blurted out in the middle of the awkward silence and it made Sportacus laugh, which made Robbie laugh, too. Sportacus smiled. 

Maybe Robbie  _ did _ like him, after all?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank god this is almost over


	9. Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes you think you might not deserve forgiveness, and other times, you're certain you don't.   
> In Robbie's case, it's the latter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my wonderful friend and editor jaybbird (this-sideblog-is-mine on tumblr) helped write this chapter with me, and i couldn't have done it without them!!

Stephanie put her hands on her hips. “ _ Robbie _ .” He stuttered at her tone and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Don’t you  _ Robbie _ me,” he demanded, his voice going up a full octave at ‘Robbie’, mocking the sound of her voice. “There’s a perfectly good reason why  _ I _ would save that good for nothing, warm-hearted, generous, healthy  _ quack _ ,” He stared at her with his arms still tight across his chest and she stared at him right back. 

“And that is…?” She frowned, staring him down. He sighed in defeat. She would never stop pressing him about this, would she?

“ _ Because _ ... I am a lonely old man and I’ve done  _ enough _ damage. I’m tired, and I just want things to be okay. I don’t want him getting hurt because of something I did, or-or at all! I don’t want him getting hurt at all! I, l--” Robbie coughed and sputtered and grumbled something about something and hunched over a bit. Stephanie looked at him with her eyebrows raised up high and Sportacus staring at Robbie in disbelief. 

“ _ Anyway _ ,” Robbie said again, a little quieter than last time, obviously embarrassed for oversharing. “We should… you should get out of here, huh? You guys… it’s a ghost town around here, you know? You should go  _ do _ something. Move to  _ Sportstown _ or something. You guys like sports. I’ll stay here in Lazytown, alone. I like being  _ lazy _ and I like being  _ alone _ . It’s a win-win situation. Nice knowing you, toodle-oo!” He turned on his heel to head back to his lair but with a swoosh there was a hand on his shoulder.

“Robbie,” Sportacus started, softly. Robbie froze, his thoughts and his heart both racing, wondering what he was going to say to him. “You need to give Stephanie closure about her friends. Tell her the truth.” Robbie’s heart sank as Sportacus said that to him. He couldn’t believe that he actually thought, for a moment, that  _ maybe _ … “And then you’ll have to pack a bag, because wherever we go, you’re coming with us.”

“W-what?” Robbie asked, turning back around slowly to face Sportacus, eyes wide in disbelief.

_ “No!” _ Stephanie shouted, voice quivering a little as her hands balled into fists. “He can’t come with us, Lazytown would still be OK if it weren’t for him! I’d still have my friends!” Her anger was startling but staggered and broke into helplessness the farther she got into her protests. She swayed a little where she stood as she felt her world getting knocked sideways again when she remembered what happened. They both went to steady her but she took a step back, still defiant. Robbie shook his head sadly at her.

“Listen kid, if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even have  _ had _ those friends!” He paused, apprehensive, and looked to Sportacus who nodded and pressed him to continue. Robbie squirmed and tried to think of a G-rated version of his story. Of course, Stephanie wasn’t a child anymore, but he would always think of her as one. He couldn’t tell her what he’d done, she would hate him forever. He looked back to Stephanie whose brow had furrowed in concentration, just waiting for him to expand on his previous statement.

“They, they died a long time ago, Pinky,” he frowned at her. “I... brought them back. Kind of. A-as dolls - puppets - sort of, because... I missed them a lot. A-and then you and your jumping blue kangaroo of a dad came along a-and you two made them all so  _ happy _ , but you made them - eugh -  _ active _ , and I had to, to spend so much of my energy making them play with you all the time! And then, then I had to play dumb and act like, like I didn’t want to be around you all, because I was so tired all of the time, from using so much  _ magic _ , and I just wanted to rest, and I--” his eyes had shut as the story spilled out of him, unsure and worried about what she would think of the things he was saying. 

“I really did want to be friends with you two… I wanted you guys to like me, but I was too busy wasting all of my energy making  _ them _ be your friends!” He choked out a sob and clenched his fists beside him. “I don’t  _ want _ to be the villain anymore. I just… don’t have a  _ choice _ .” After a few seconds of his silent tears, Stephanie took a shaky step towards him. Her eyes forced to the ground were hidden by her bangs. Sportacus looked fearful he’d have to intervene when her hand tightened around Robbie’s arm for support, the tall man just as anxious and looking to him for help.

Before either could act, she pulled herself into his arms, burying her face in his vest as she began to shake, crying again. Awkwardly, Robbie pat her back as she wheezed and wept. She had never  _ hated _ him before this mess and it felt like all her energy was waning when she tried to do it now. How she  _ wanted _ to hate him but with all her memories scattered of her friends, of Robbie, of Sportacus, suddenly they felt like a fairy tale, so good, so distant. 

“I feel so alone, Robbie,” She said quietly when the shaking ceased. “Even though they weren’t real, I feel so empty because they’re gone. We used to love you, and your schemes, you were our friend the whole time.” Robbie felt himself begin to tear up as well, his chest growing tight as she tightened her grip on his arm. Before he could respond she continued with a voice like steel: “You should have said something earlier… You should have told us, should have…” Again, her venom faltered as she tried to keep strong, still not meeting his eye as she gazed at their feet with her forehead against him, “Maybe I could have stopped this, I-I could have helped you.” 

“No, you couldn’t,” Robbie’s voice shook too, “I have always been in over my head.”

“We could,” Stephanie insisted, “there’s always a way. Always.”

Robbie coughed out a wet laugh.

“Thank you,” she murmured, her hand slipping from its vice-like grasp around his forearm.

“For what?” He balked, eyebrows raising.

“Thank you for telling me the truth.” She took a step back. “About everything, about th-them, and the magic. I… I didn’t know.”

“I-I…. Surprise?” He didn’t feel so magic, he felt like a fraud, casually omitting the fact that he killed all those people himself, so much for telling the truth, but Sportacus didn’t seem to mind that he left out some of the darker facts of his story. He supposed then that what he had told Stephanie was alright for now. “So… do you…  _ forgive _ me?” 

She opened her mouth as if to respond but paused, closing it again. Unable to meet his eye, Stephanie turned and looked at Sportacus, or rather, in the direction of Sportacus as she couldn’t quite match him either.

“You should go pack your bags, Stephanie. We have new places to explore, don’t we?” Sportacus stepped in, going and gently rubbing her shoulder. She nodded and left in a weak jog to collect her things. Robbie let out an almost pained sigh as he watched her go. He shouldn’t have asked her that question, it hurt more knowing she couldn’t answer it than it would have not knowing at all. “Robbie? You should go pack, too.”

“I don’t need to pack, I can make whatever I need appear wherever I am.” Sportacus gave him an odd look.

“...Really?”

“Yes really, watch,” And like that, a bindle appeared in mid-air, in a cloud of purple and glitter, which Robbie caught and threw over his shoulder.

Sportacus’s had an expression of complete bewilderment on his face for a moment - finally he got to actually watch Robbie do magic, and it was  _ nothing _ like he imagined. For some reason he expected something dark and unsettling to go with his villainous persona, but as he watched the purple smoke dissipate and the glitter fall gently to the ground… he wasn’t exactly sure what he had just witnessed, actually. What on Earth  _ was _ Robbie?

“You expect me to come with you? To your  _ blimp _ ?” Robbie asked, voice cracking at the last word. He was craning his neck back and staring up at the giant airship hanging in the dreary, colorless sky. Sportacus shook the confusion out of his head at hearing Robbie say  _ blimp _ .   
  
“Yes! And It’s an  _ airship!” _ He laughed, only mildly offended.   
  
“ _ Whatever _ ,” Robbie scoffed, snapping his head back down to look at Sportacus. “I am  _ not _ climbing up there.”

Before Sportacus had the chance to reply, Stephanie reappeared wearing a hoodie with matching sweatpants - some of Bessie’s more comfortable clothes, as her own no longer fit very well. She also wore an overstuffed backpack and had a rolly suitcase in tow, all of which were, of course, various shades of pink. “Are you ready to go?” She asked them, though it really seemed like she was only talking to Sportacus.

“Yes! Ladder!” The ladder tumbled down from the ship floating above them and Robbie looked up again with a gulp. The airship had lowered itself closer to them considerably since the last time he looked up, but the still-dizzying height of their destination made him feel weak in the knees.

“No, no, no. Absolutely not. I  _ really _ don’t like heights,” He watched Stephanie grab the ladder and start up it.

“I don’t like heights either, but Sp-- my  _ dad _ always says, if you’re ever afraid, just be a little brave at first. If you take one step at a time, before you know it… you won’t be scared!” She smiled in a peakish manner down at him. He squinted up at her, feeling like her smile wasn’t genuine, but as close as he would get. “Grab my suitcase, please.” She requested more energetically, before taking a deep breath and speeding up the ladder with a look of forced glee. Robbie grumbled. He was about to voice his concerns about carrying a suitcase up a rope ladder dangling from the sky when Sportacus strapped her suitcase onto his back. He gestured for Robbie to climb up before him with a big smile on his face. Robbie sighed.

“Honestly? After everything I’ve done, you’re  _ still _ pretending you like me? I don’t want to be a burden. I should really just… stay here. Where I can’t cause any more trouble, you know?” He dropped his sack and it disappeared before it hit the ground in the same puff of smoke that it appeared in. He averted his eyes away from Sportacus’s gaze and scratched the back of his head nervously. “I don’t need your pity. I don’t deserve it.” Sportacus’s smile faded, feeling an unfamiliar tightness in his chest.

“Robbie... I don’t pity you!” He glanced up at Stephanie, who was just climbing into his airship, and then back to Robbie rolling his eyes. He clearly didn’t believe him. Sportacus sighed sadly and took a step towards him, pressing himself against the taller man who snapped his head back forward to look down at Sportacus.

“What are you doing?” Robbie twitched nervously at the closeness.

“Being a little brave?” Sportacus offered back, wrapping his arms around the taller man in a tight hug, the elf’s chin against his chest, looking up at him. “I’m not pretending to like you, Robbie. I  _ do _ like you and I think of you as my friend.” Robbie frowned deeply and stuffed his hands between himself and the elf and pushed him off.

“Don’t lie to me, Sportacus.” He pointed an accusatory finger towards the hero. “Your little pink daughter hates me, and you have no reason to feel any differently.” Robbie took a step backwards and Sportacus frowned.

“Robbie, I’m not lying! I  _ never _ lie. Stephanie can’t hate you forever and I  _ care _ about you, I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving you alone here. I want to--” Robbie made a disgusted face and let out a heavy sigh.

There was suddenly a cloud of purple smoke and glitter gently floating to the ground where Robbie had just been. He had vanished in front of his eyes.

Sportacus stared ahead at the empty spot where the villain had stood. “--be with you,” he finished his thought, quietly. He heard Stephanie call for him from up in his airship and he closed his eyes, grabbing onto the rope ladder. “Up,” He shouted up to his ship half-heartedly, as if all of his energy had been sapped from him. 

The ladder pulled Sportacus up with it and automatically rolled itself into the belly of the ship as he climbed onto the lowered platform and was taken inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think the next chapter will be the Last Chapter, but i haven't written it yet so WHO KNOWS ? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> whichever the case, this story is coming to a close, and i hope y'all have enjoyed this #edgy nonsense  
> i'm actually pretty happy with this & i'm so glad that ppl actually LIKE my first attempt at a multi-chapter fic ♥

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! This fic is based off of my own AU that I posted on tumblr  
> @ officiallazytown.tumblr.com/post/153975198625  
> I've already written a few chapters, but I'm not sure how to finish. We'll see, I guess. Feel free to leave suggestions in your comments!


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